by David Edward
There was nothing to do now except wait for reports back from the E2s. Logan and Odessa both sat down on either side of a large rock that was about waist high. They had taken their helmets fully off. It was ridiculously hot here, several units above the freezing point of water.
Inhospitable.
X7 approached Logan and asked, “Sir. I have noticed a change in your primary decision-making model.”
Logan looked at Odessa with a smile and then up to X7 with a look of curiosity. “How so, X7?”
“On the ship, you would rarely make a decision without extensive consultations with the other guardians.” There was only one other guardian, Odessa, but Logan nodded in the affirmative anyway.
X7 continued. “But today, you have made several significant decisions very quickly. They were extremely aggressive decisions as well.”
There was a pause.
Logan looked back over to Odessa. “X7, is there a question in there somewhere?”
“I do not understand what changed, sir.”
“Nothing changed, X7.”
X7 was silent for a few moments, crossloading. “Begging your pardon, sir. But clearly, something did change. Your need to crossload. Aggressiveness, and the speed at which you made decisions today, was wholly unlike what I have observed in the past.”
Logan looked back up at X7, understanding to a degree what he thought the etherreal was trying to get at. “Are you asking me what the difference is between an individual decision and a collaborative decision, X7?”
“I don’t know, sir. If that is how you interpret my inquiry, then we certainly can start there.”
“Okay, X7. Give me something to comment on. I know you do not have an ether connection or a connection to a localhub. But you have your own localstore and four primary cycles of experiences. What decision model paradigm do you prefer? How do you categorize different types of decisions?”
X7 crossloaded for a few micro cycles. “Ah, I understand your question now, sir. There are two types of decisions: those made by primes, and those made by non-primes.”
Logan was surprised by the answer.
He had never looked at things that way. He considered being the ship’s prime a burden. “I would disagree with you, X7. I believe there are many different types of decisions.
“There are decisions that only affect yourself.
“Ones that affect others.
“Ones that need to follow military protocol. Ones that need to follow the teachings. Many different types, too many to effectively categorize and discuss, I think.
“The difference you are observing in me today has been the difference between a collaborative decision and an individual decision. Would you be comfortable having our conversation framed around those two concepts? I believe it will address the query you have.”
“Of course, sir, “ X7 said.
“Great. “ Logan leaned forward as the luminary went into a full set. The temperature was dropping rapidly. It was starting to feel more hospitable. “So, X7, you are familiar with military concepts. I know it is not your core function. Today, for example, though, you spent the day almost completely in a military capacity.
“That was a collaborative decision. Not made by us. Made by the Machi council.
“When we decided to send E2s out to scout, that was a collaborative decision made by us collectively as a command team.
“The strategy was to send out scouts to gain information about our surroundings.
“We all agreed with your recommendation to do that, remember?”
“Sir. That is not how I remember it at all. My decision was overridden after you had already approved it. There was no collaboration.” X7 was a little concerned to challenge the ship's prime this way.
He was also relieved to finally be having this conversation.
Logan smiled. “Ah. I believe I understand.” He stood up and walked closer to X7. “You wanted to send the E2s out in a single group. Odessa suggested smaller groups.”
Logan looked back to Odessa and nodded to her. She stood up and walked over to X7. “Yes, that was not an override. I agreed with your strategic decision to scout the area and gather information.
“It was a good decision and, obviously, provided data that we were able to use to survive the attack.
“The strategy was sound.
“I suggested a different way to go about doing it.
“That is a tactic. A strategy can have multiple ways of being achieved.”
Logan continued for her. “A strategy is the overarching goal; a tactic is the way in which you go about achieving the goal.
“Obviously, the two are inherently linked together.
“A good strategy with bad tactics can be indistinguishable from a bad strategy.
“We agreed with you and the strategy. But part of collaboration is that sometimes, several ideas are considered, or combined, to make up the final decision. When ideas are mutually exclusive, one may be selected over another. But those are just part of the tactics, not the overall decision.
“Does this make sense to you, X7?”
X7 crossloaded and found he was conflicted.
His primary decision model was based around being a prime.
There were things a prime got to do that non-primes did not. “I am struggling, sir, to adopt this paradigm. As the ship’s prime, you should make ship decisions.
“As etherreal prime, I should make etherreal decisions.
“Just as Adyamo should make digger decisions being digger prime.”
The mention of Adyamo brought everyone back to the current situation, even X7. He realized there were several peer-to-peer messages waiting for him. Unlike hub messages, he had to check the peer-to-peer queues if he was not actively attached to them.
“One of the E2s has found a location they believe would be sufficient for our needs.”
The group followed X7, who was able to use the peer-to-peer connection to find the E2’s location.
The terrain changed again.
It was warmer now, and there was a lot of green foliage. The landscape became rockier and more uneven, with a few small, active rivers traversing throughout.
As they approached their destination, it also became apparent that the land had at one time been worked for crops and settlements. Sections were divided. There were rock formations separating areas. There were clear abandoned roadways.
The E2 unit was standing at the start of a long wide road. It was overgrown with green plants, but clearly, it had been the main thoroughfare. On either side of the road were ruined buildings. It looked like age had gotten the better of them, not some disaster, natural or otherwise.
The construction appeared very advanced. The materials used seemed to be quarried stone—exceptionally large pieces of stone, at that.
Given the advanced growth of some of the trees into the buildings and the weathered look of the stones, it seemed this site had been here for an exceedingly long time. Thousands of Alethia cycles or longer.
That would make it older than Machi spaceflight.
In their heyday, the buildings would still have been open air. It seemed the environment and the city were built to be in harmony with each other. There were many pillars and obelisks. Many walls and archways.
Here and there was a side street that created an overall symmetrical layout to the structures.
The other two E2 units had made it here ahead of the larger group. One stood to either side on guard, scanning for changes in the environment.
Odessa spoke first. “This looks like Fovian architecture. Older, but the general design is unquestionably Fovian.”
The Fovians were the dominant race in the luminary circle. There were more Fovians than the other four races combined.
Logan looked at her and then back to the ancient city. He started to walk forward and motioned for the others to follow him.
“Logan,” Odessa said. They both had taken their helmets off. “Let the etherreals go first.”
It was a pleading statement, maybe a little out of character for her.
Logan stopped, thought for a second, and turned to the group. The E2s had started to walk up the road with him, and they stopped too.
“E7,“ Logan said, “take one of the E2s and scout the area ahead. X7, take the other two and scout the area we flew over. Odessa and I will need a place to rest. We are both going to need to find a food source soon as well.”
The etherreals headed off in opposite directions. Once they were gone, Odessa asked, “What did you find out about the briefing transmission?”
He remembered that they had not talked alone since he and X7 had done the analysis.
A lot had happened in a short amount of time. “The Machi circle sent us a datagram that included a lot more details about the reason for the defensive order. It came through the cogitate circle who, somehow, either filtered the message on purpose or the message was lost.
“However, there was also a second attempt to delete the few packets that made it across the fabric to the ship.
“X7 pointed out, and I had the same realization, that you and I were briefed by a truth-teller.”
Odessa sat in thought for a few moments.
The ruling class was divided into three parts.
First, there were council members. This was the bulk of the ruling class and accounted for almost all the higher Machians. A council member was assigned to sit on a decision-making body, often thousands deep. They would debate topics, write legislation, and vote to adopt or reject laws and treaties. They heard trial cases and made decisions of law regarding their particular area. There were thousands of councils with thousands of members.
Then there were the primes—the first council members among equals. They moderated council discussions and decided what items would be heard by the council and what items would not be heard.
Finally, there were the truth-tellers. They communicated what the councils had decided. They were also the go-betweens for the rest of Machian society. They controlled who could speak with a council and communicated the council’s actions.
The entire structure was based on the principle that the truth-tellers were good to their name. They could only communicate the truth. They were not to embellish or to deceive, nor withhold or exaggerate.
From time to time, allegations were brought against a truth-teller for unfair dealings. They would be heard by special judicial councils. The penalty for bringing a false accusation against a truth-teller was death. No truth-teller had ever unsuccessfully defended themselves, making it no surprise the time-to-time allegations were few and far between.
Odessa reflected on all this. “It had to be the etherholo. She was the only one on the ship that would have the authority to intercept packets from the fabric.”
The statement was depressing and very heavy. This was the worst scenario for a guardian, to believe a truth-teller had falsified information and done it to manipulate a situation that could have resulted in the deaths of the guardians and the end of their clan.
“I know,” Logan said, “and given how things fell apart pretty quickly here after we landed, could you imagine if we had not received the defense authorization? Our weapons would have been locked down, and we would all now be dead or captured.”
They both sat in silence for a few more moments, trying to understand what this all meant. Both were forced to confront the fact that none of this was a theory given the attack on the Thorik and capture of their fellow clanmates.
Given the amazing firepower and quick-strike tactical abilities they were confronted with made everything seem even worse.
Odessa finally broke the silence. “Let’s say we are able to hole up here and regroup. Find a food source. What are we going to do?
“It seems to me we have to free our clan as our first priority. We have no idea why they were taken. We are lucky to know probably in general where they are. The geo circle around the off-limits area. But beyond that, we don’t know anything.”
She saw that Logan was looking in the direction they had come from. The mountain ranges could not be seen from here. It all looked like flat land with a far-off horizon.
“Odessa, you are a brilliant strategist.” He was being serious. “I know we have to fight back, but I can’t seem to formulate how. There are too few of us. I know we must save the diggers, and I know we must do it fast. But everything leads to failure.
“We were lucky to have survived their initial attack. If we had not been split up, we would not have been able to counterattack from the flanks, and if we had not found the pre-resolution weapons, which was pure luck, we would not even be here now to discuss this.”
“We need more etherreals,“ Odessa said as though it were an answer to something.
“There are no more etherreals,” Logan said, sounding disheartened. “X7, E7, and the three E2s are all we have.”
Odessa had a spark in her eye. “Those twelve pre-ether ships…they will have androids. And all the heavy weapons we can use.”
“True. We did not get a chance to confirm if the androids were still intact on the ship we visited. From what I saw, my expectations would be that they were.”
“So, Logan, here is the plan. There are a couple pieces. First, we need to rest and find a food source for you and me. Then tomorrow we need to visit the twelve pre-ether ships and inventory them. Then we need to retrieve the E2s we lost and X4. If we can repair them, great. If not, we can use their circuitry to upgrade the androids.
“Then, at the same time, we will need to recon the off-limits area and see what we are dealing with while we collect the androids, armaments, and weaponry for our rescue effort.”
Logan smiled at her. “That is a lot of ‘thens.’”
She returned the smile. “Wait until we try and figure out what to do after the rescue. It is not like we can just go back to mining like everything is fine. Going to be a lot of ‘if thens.’”
This was an old Machian schoolyard logic joke, and they both laughed.
Day One
They found a nice building that had probably been the living quarters of one of the better-off residences of the city. A villa of sorts.
It was a good way into the city proper, and open air, but had a large ceiling structure that would hide them from aerial scans (should there be any) and had several rooms they could use for sleeping, eating, and the work they planned to do with the androids.
There were also several larger buildings right across the abandoned street that were not open air. They looked like storage buildings. That is exactly what they were about to be used for, so it was all a nice fit.
The etherreals had found several wild plants that were left over from when the area had crops. There was plenty of food, enough for the two guardians, and later for all the diggers, should they be able to rescue them.
It was now the morning after a night’s sleep that was troubled, if uneventful. The sky was still cloudless, and the luminary had risen to a nice day. It was going to be warm by Machi standards, but not unbearably so.
Logan, Odessa, X7, and E7 were gathered in the main room of the establishment. The two guardians were out of their combat armor and seated on surprisingly comfortable stone furniture. The E2s were on guard in the villa doorways.
Odessa had just explained the strategy and all the pieces to the two etherreals.
Odessa was the strategist, Logan the planner.
Logan took over. “So those are the goals. Now we have to figure out how to do all this without being detected. I think it is safe to assume that whoever we are dealing with either believes we are dead or views us as no consequence. We are not seeing any signs of a search for us. I am reasonably certain we were able to make our retreat during the large explosion unnoticed.”
Odessa nodded in the affirmative that she agreed. E7 did not object to the assumption.
“I do have a suggestion, sir,” X7 said.
“What is it, X7?”
“While I understand o
ur primary goal is to free our clanmates, it seems to me from my processing that a secondary goal should be to exact revenge upon those who took them and attacked us. It certainly appears they have been doing this to Machians here on this planet for thousands of years. We should put a stop to it.”
“X7, I agree those are decisions that a prime should make. But we do not know enough yet about what we are dealing with. I think the suggestion holds merit. I am not overriding it“—Logan wanted to be clear given their conversation from the day before—“but I do not think we can make that decision yet.”
“There are too many factors at play,” Odessa said. “We don’t know who we are dealing with. We need information on the size of their forces. We also do not understand how the cogitate circle plays into this. It could be we have problems both here and at home. We also need an inventory so we know what resources we have available.”
X7 was unsure.
He was sincerely trying to process the conversation from yesterday concerning decision-making paradigms. However, as a prime who had just lost the bulk of his etherreals by a surprise attack, revenge seemed the logical approach.
“Sir, if I may,” X7 continued. “The odds are that we are a lost cause should we attempt to rescue the diggers.
“And that even if we succeed, there are forces at work against us in the cogitate circle that will be our quick demise once we are discovered to have survived.
“The only clear choice we have is how to affect our own termination and, if we are able, to extract some level of punishment to those directly responsible for carrying it out.”
No one thought X7 was wrong. It all came down to how you chose to view the problem.
Odessa responded, “X7, you are correct given the information I provided to the strategy. I should have shared the entire strategy with everyone.
“We discussed yesterday the difference between strategy and tactics.
“We also need to consider scope. How large or small our strategy is. How much of the real world we believe we can affect.